Waverley’s BNG level is set at 10%.

The NPPF states: "applicants are encouraged to consider biodiversity net gain early in the development process and factor it into site selection and design. Where appropriate, they should discuss the biodiversity net gain requirements for their development upfront with the relevant local planning authority utilising any pre-application advice services offered by them. This could help establish whether development proposals would be subject to biodiversity net gain and, if they are, enable feedback on the proposed strategy for achieving the biodiversity gain objective and consideration of the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy to inform the design of the proposals"

Please note, If you work for the LPA and wish to add additional information, please inform the Joe's Blooms team here.

Waverley’s pre-application advice service can be foundhere.

Waverley is part of the Surrey Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy 2.3.1 of the BNG Assessment (adopted January 2023).

To quantify the level of biodiversity net gain that can be delivered under the proposed development, the change in biodiversity value resulting from the scheme has been calculated using the Biodiversity Metric version 3.1 calculation tool4 and associated user guide5 . This takes account of the size, distinctiveness and ecological condition of existing and proposed habitat areas to provide a proxy measure of the present and forecast biodiversity value of a site, and therefore determine the overall change in biodiversity value.

See also the Local Plan.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy 3.9 of the BNG Assessment (adopted January 2023).

3.9.1 An element of strategic significance is built into the metric. This gives an enhanced value to habitats that are located in preferred locations for biodiversity and other environmental objectives. The User Guide explains that: ‘Such priorities are drawn from relevant published local plans and objectives to identify local priorities for targeting biodiversity and nature improvement, such as Nature Recovery Areas, local biodiversity plans, National Character Area objectives and green infrastructure strategies’.

3.9.2 In this instance, the scheme is not located in any particular area of strategic significance as defined under the Technical Supplement, such as Biodiversity Opportunity Areas, or other strategic biodiversity areas such as those that might be defined under Local Plan Policy or regional Biodiversity Actions Plans. The ‘strategic significance’ of all habitats included within the calculation is therefore given as ‘Area/Compensation not in Local Strategy/no local strategy’.